Tag Archives: social media

The Black Twitterer

A deep social study may exists in analyzing why black people have flocked to Twitter. Not to dwell on that in this post, I came across a post from InyyVinny.com as they responded to an article about black people’s habits and Twitter. Anyhow, they created some creative Twitter avatars to define the ‘Black Twitterer’, I have added my commentary to each avatar, see below:

My only comment about black people and Twitter is an observation: it has been well-documented that black people are late adopters to social media; in the instances of Facebook, MySpace, and even Twitter. Its not until a high profile figure in hip-hop and/or the black community endorses or talks about a social media tool, that black people will begin to utilize it. Being a black male myself, I am impressed that we do use Twitter, as it can be a useful tool, but I too often find that we are promoting and tweeting nonesense/foolishness/tomfoolery. Its always sad when a Trending Topic is some ghetto term and/or involves the ‘N word’. I truly think that due to the short 140 characters of Twitter, it allows many people to practice online, what they do in real life – talk sh*t. Because, if you roam Twitter for even 10 minutes, you will be left with the deduction that there is a lot of sh*t talking on here.

The Influenced Economy

Sourced from Adweek:
“Social media specialist Vitrue, which aids brands in building their customer bases on social networks, tried to put a media value on such communities.
The firm has determined that, on average, a fan base of 1 million translates into at least $3.6 million in equivalent media over a year.”

This translates to the fact that the more followers and/or fans that you have on social networking sites, the more leverage or value one possesses. Which in turn suggests that advertisers should pay more for an ad on a profile page with 1 million followers, than a profile page that has 5,000 followers – creating an advertising economy of scale based on influence. Seems like we are in high school all over again, but this “Influenced Economy” may be a viable way for social media companies to actually start making money, and have a real business model.

Table of contents for Litigious Behavior

The Vocal Minority

The Vocal Minority

Ringing loudly from a few

A little Abstract: Simply put, minority groups – lifestyles, cultural, racial, were disadvantaged because their concerns went unheard in the general public – primarily due to the availability of distributional channels; back in the day, the only way to really rally, garner support were through newspapers, TV (if you could get the airtime), and word of mouth. In times of social unrest throughout the world, the ‘grassroots’ campaign has been the movement of choice for sparking change and voicing dissent – from the pamphlets that used to be passed around in the dens preceding the Spanish revolution to speak of injustices, to the rallies that started in the deep south in the U.S. circa 1960’s that spread across the nation – it has shown us that the minority, though small, can be very vocal in expressing their dissent.

Enter the digital age with communications passing at lightning speeds; grassroots groups can now quickly spread their message around – gaining members, support, and exposure. The most recent and salient example of this would be Obama’s 2008 U.S. presidential campaign as the mastermind of his campaign utilized the power of social network’s to connect with people; the campaign was able to quickly organize rallies and spread campaign messages to thousands of people instantly. It is said that it is because of Obama’s clever use of grassroots movement ‘mentality’ that lead him to victory in the election – in an election that everyone initially thought he had no chance in winning.

Essentially, most grassroots movements focus around inequity; the imbalance of a system – and the movements try to disrupt and/or change the lifestyle of the majority. Some of the movements I support, but for some …. I don’t know. These movements are very vocal, but their cause – I can’t identify with and/or subscribe, or I just don’t get the logic in how they expressed themselves. There are even full sites that give guides and tutorials on how to start Grassroots sites (click here) with plenty of resources.

The Doubters

No need to explain what doubt is; should be a universal concept as we experience everyday in our lives. Whenever you have an event, or a belief, there will always be two points of view – the Advocators and the Doubters. Let’s examine the Doubters; specifically in the light of substantial empirical evidence. Call them ignorant, believers, or motivationally driven, these people pronounce an opposing stance in the face of adversity; such as those that don’t believe in the moon landing by NASA. Maybe call them the ‘conspirators’ actually, as they cast doubt and mystery behind many of life’s popular events; and they gain traction via social networking sites and mobile technology to amplify their belief.

I only dread as the world gets increasingly smaller with communications, that the world on a whole, will be much louder – get your earmuffs out.

The Loss of Shame

Good or Bad?

As 2009 comes to an end, this has to be one of the most bizarre years for celebrities and sports figures – from Octo Mom, Chris Brown/Rihanna, the Rick Ross/50 Cent fiasco, and the endless ‘leaks’ of personal home videos from celebrities, this year is definitely a defining moment in the ongoing moral decay of society. Combine that with the ever-so popular YouTube videos of youth fights (especially the senseless killing of a Chicago teen), it can be said that we have lost our sense of shame. This point rings louder in the aftermath of the Tiger Woods incident where we have several women ‘proudly’ coming forward in saying that they had sexual relations with the Golf superstar. Let’s analyze the situation so we are all following; up to 16 women are coming forward saying they had relations with a married man … If this was even 50 years ago, these women would have not dared to pronounce such a thing as they would feel ASHAMED and EMBARRASSED. However, some ‘reappropriation’ or ‘reinterpretation’ has happened in the last couple of years because now what used to be ‘shameful’ can be almost worn as a ‘badge of honor’ on one’s sleeve.

So how did we lose the sense of shame? Was it lost with the rise of feminism as women became more vocal about their gender & sexuality? Or was it a reaction to the rise in ‘political correctness’ as a sort of a revolt or detest? I am sure there are a multitude of reasons to our moral decay, and all relates to a loss of pride, honor, and respect for ourselves. I mean, that has to be the only reasons for why women would proudly bolster themselves as hussies, modern day jezebels – we are using our greed for money and fame as an appropriate rational to engage in shameful behavior. Its funny, kind of, we are practicing the ENDS justifies the MEANS, where the ‘ENDS’ refers to money/fame/notoriety and the ‘MEANS’ is whoever or whatever we have to screw (literally and figuratively) over to get it.

This ‘loss of shame’ is everywhere through our society, and I guess it is a reflection to changing norms and attitudes. Some more relatable examples that are seen in everyday life are:

men who mooch off their girlfriends

Not saying that men can be the only ones who are the ‘earners’, but there are many guys out there that are proud that they stay home, play video games all day, and just spend their girlfriend’s money … can anyone say ‘role-reversal’? Lol, just kidding to my independent women.

The Whore Movement

Has always been around, but re-ignited with Paris Hilton, this movement pretty much teaches young females that it is okay to be slack, loose, film yourself – if it leads to money & material wealth. With hip-hop, now we have rappers like Nicki Minaj who have an almost cult-like following of young women who follow her on Twitter, dress like her, and talks like her (go to her MySpace to get familiar).

The most blatant example of our ‘Loss of Shame’ can be seen daily, hourly, on Twitter – sometimes I am disgusted of the trending topics and some of the comments/posts that people share. It really is a sea of madness and nonsense – but in the same breath, is this a product of our individualistic society where we are encouraged to say what is on our minds?

The ‘Good’ in the “Loss of Shame”?

From childhood, we are taught that we are ‘special’, we are ‘unique’, ‘no one is like you’, and to ‘speak our mind’, so is this merely the cost of our individuality – the loss of morals? It is an interesting trade-off that we seem to be battling with at the moment as it is a continuous cycle of conflicting views that go sort of like: If I am vocal of something that is perceived as morally incorrect, if I DON’T talk about it I am repressing my feelings & emotions – which goes against everything that society teaches me …. And if I DO be vocal about something that is morally incorrect, then I am expressing myself, even though I know it is wrong – so why am I expressing it in the first place.

Just thinking about this gives me a headache, as morality, ethics, freedom, and psychology interplay in this sticky quagmire of a situation.

Art imitating Life

The Life Event

The wedding of Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz starts with a quality entrance dance to Chris Brown’s Forever…yeah, forever. It took place at a Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The Art

This scene comes from Season 6 of the U.S. version of the Office show; as they make no attempts to deny the idea for this wedding dance sequence as they reference the popular Youtube clip that has over 2 million views, and I am sure that many more views of the real wedding were spawned since the airing of this episode.

I have to give The Office kudos for having the courage to take ideas from the social media world, which in turn increases the popularity of the show online and offline.

Utilize your natural Morphine abilities

The roles of endorphins

A famous line once said that the “end of stress, is death”, and this couldn’t be more true – as from when we are born, stress is all around us; and it is even said that how we respond to stress determines our physiological and mental health. A determinant to our overall health lies in how we respond (cope) in stressful situations; and a stressful situation can be an internal or external stimuli; and the common coping mechanisms are alcohol, illegal and prescription drugs. The latter of the two aim to reduce stress by allowing the receptors in the neural pathways to produce analgesia; which elicits a sense of relaxation – a good feeling. During the hard times of the 80’s in the Reagan Crack eras, with unemployment high like it is now, people got addicted to heroin and other opiate related drugs to cope with the stress; many drug users became addicted to the substance and developed habits that debilitated their personal lives. What many people don’t understand is that your body has the ability to produce the same ‘high’ feeling that xanax or any illegal opium drug can provide – and naturally.

Endorphins

Endorphins are endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds. They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during strenuous exercise, excitement, pain, death, and orgasm, and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a sense of well-being. Endorphins work as “natural pain relievers”, whose effects may be enhanced by other medications.

The term endorphin rush has been adopted in popular speech to refer to feelings of exhilaration brought on by pain, danger, or other forms of stress, supposedly due to the influence of endorphins. When a nerve impulse reaches the spinal cord, endorphins are released which prevent nerve cells from releasing more pain signals. Immediately after injury, endorphins allow humans to feel a sense of power and control over themselves that allows them to persist with activity for an extended time.

For the Social Media Afficiando

Key differences; naturally producing endorphins by engaging in some sort of physical activity is better than producing endorphins through other adrenaline rushes such as fear, pain, danger – in terms of stress. But even after you had the day from hell, and you hit that gym, do that 1/2 hour on the treadmill, push that iron, the same stressors will be there tomorrow – only difference is that you did not destroy your liver through drinking or damage brain cells through marijuana or crack. So, try to modify the stressors!

For the social media affluent aficionados who are frequently on their iPod, blackberry’s (funny how the plural of blackberry is ‘blackberries’), and on the computers commenting on the many ‘interesting’ occurrences in their lives or the TV show they may be watching; they experience certain levels of stress too – slow internet connections leading to frustration in downloads, e-beef with twitter followers, programming and design stumbling blocks, etc, sometimes the best thing you can do is to remove the stressor for awhile. That means, walk away, put down the iPhone or berry. Take a walk or go to the gym; do something tangible and active … and then tweet about that!